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U.S. embassy move got more love from Christians than Jews, Trump says

June 25, 2018

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and Ivanka Trump, adviser to and daughter of President Donald Trump, revealing a dedication plaque at the official opening ceremony of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, May 14, 2018. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

(JTA) – U.S. President Donald Trump said that evangelical Christians have been more appreciative than Jews of his decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

Trump made the assertion during an interview aired over the weekend with Mike Huckabee, on the former Republican governor of Arkansas’ talk show on the TBN Christian network. The interview took place at the White House on June 18.

“I tell you what, I get more calls of thank you from evangelicals, and I see it in the audiences and everything else, than I do from Jewish people,” Trump said. “And the Jewish people appreciate it but the evangelicals appreciate it more than the Jews.”

“It’s not a surprise though Mr. President, because evangelicals are people of the book,” Huckabee said in response. “And they believe you kept a promise, were fulfilling really a 3,000-year old commitment to recognize Jerusalem as the capital.”

“I think it’s a nice thing to say because it really affects Jewish people in theory more, but as you say people of the book, people of the Bible,” Trump said. “But the evangelicals really appreciate it and that makes me feel good.”

Huckabee attended the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem last month.

‘It was a campaign promise, I was going to keep it,” Trump said of the embassy move. He added that he never understood why presidents before him had not moved the embassy, until he began to get calls from dozens of world leaders asking him not to move the embassy.

Huckabee also asked Trump about his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and about the immigration controversy.